One of the many highlights of Google I/O this year was that Android L. The next iteration of Android that is scheduled for release this fall. Something very notable about Android L goes beyond just the looks of the whole UI and the Material Design elements. What it supports is a pretty big deal. See, Android L will support 64-bit GPU’s. This is a big deal to a lot of people. One of, if not the, best 64-bit mobile GPU’s out and about is the NVIDIA Tegra K1. That processor was announced back at CES in January and has made its way to various developers by way of the Jetson TK1 development kit. It is also the chip being used in the Project Tango tablet which was announced just a few weeks ago.
One of the demos today was of Epic Games Unreal Engine 4 using Android L with a Tegra K1. Sadly the video had some interference and kept cutting in and out. So we didn’t really get to see a clear image of how powerful the 192 programmable cores and the Kepler GPU (same GPU found in the TITAN video cards for PC) really was. Luckily, the full video with the an overview explanation from Epic Games is live on YouTube and you can sit back and take a look.
Pretty stunning, right? I mean, seriously, this makes mobile gaming open up even more. With the NVIDIA Shield 2 said to be running the Tegra K1 we are certainly in for a treat there. More so though, the Tegra K1 is the first processor to support Android TV. NVIDIA already has K1 has a reference platform for set-top boxes and TV OEM’s while a Tegra Android TV dev platform is already available for apps, games and content development. I think Android TV and NVIDIA are about to seriously upset the console world with a true Android powered gaming system. I could be wrong, and generally am, but this is the first time I have been excited to see what Android gaming on my TV could really be like.
Dig out some more dirt through some of NVIDIA’s blog posts about the Tegra K1 and all the Google I/O goodness through the links below.
NVIDIA Tegra K1 Android TVÂ | Tegra K1 AEP gaming | Tegra at I/OÂ | Tegra Android Auto
Check out the Android L presentation from the Google I/O keynote
